


Summer and the Christmas Dance

by angellwings



Series: Summer-time [4]
Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Future Fic, Jassandra Kid Fic, Jassandra as Parents, Love, Peer Pressure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 12:32:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5456657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angellwings/pseuds/angellwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jacob and Cassandra take Summer to Oklahoma to visit his sister and while there they attend a Christmas Barn Dance. The evening leads to Summer learning quite a bit about who her parents used to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer and the Christmas Dance

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been wanting to write Teenage!Summer for a while and I finally had an idea of what to do and I'm pretty proud of the result. I hope you guys enjoy it! This is also for 25 Days of Jassandra for jassandratrash on Tumblr!

Jacob knew this was a bad idea. From the very beginning he knew this would be a bad idea. But his sister had insisted. It was Christmas and she hadn’t seen him or Cassandra or Summer in several years. But going home had never led him anywhere good. His father hadn’t been an issue since long before Summer was born but where ever Jacob had a history prior to The Library frustration and disappointment tended to follow. He loved his oldest sister but he knew that fact would prove to be true yet again.

“Jacob,” Cassandra said as she came to stand next him and looped her arm through his. “Relax. This is supposed to be fun.”

“It would be for you,” he told her with a small smile as he looked from the bright red boots on her feet, to the western skirt made fluffier by a petticoat, and the classic western shirt that was tucked into it. “You’ve never been to one of these before.”

“Oh come on, it’s a town Christmas Barn Dance,” She said excitedly. “There’s garland and pretty trees and live music and lots of friendly people. It’s cute!”

He chuckled and leaned down to kiss her temple. “No, _you’re_ cute.”

She giggled and then motioned across the room to where he knew Summer had been standing last. Summer, his now teenaged daughter who was too pretty for her own good, had been safely tucked against the wall like the shy wallflower she could sometimes be. Especially when in a room full of new people. “She’s cuter,” Cassandra said with an amused grin.

Jacob’s gaze followed where her hand led and froze.

His fifteen year old daughter wore a dopey grin he’d seen on his own face more than once and was giggling at a young man who was leaning on the wall next to her. He looked to be about her age which was a slight relief. But that relief was replaced with panic when the young man winked at Summer and placed his own Cowboy hat on her head. Her red wavy hair that had been in low braided pig tails peeked out from under it as she blushed.

Oh no. No, no, no. Definitely not.

“Are you seeing this?” He asked Cassandra as his eyes narrowed at the young cowboy addressing his daughter.

“I’ve been seeing it for several minutes,” Cassandra told him with a soft smile. “It’s adorable. In fact, I think he may even ask her to dance. Can you imagine?”

No, no he could not imagine. He refused to imagine.

“I’ll be right back,” he mumbled as he worked himself free of Cassandra’s arm and stomped across the dance floor. He heard his wife sigh tiredly and then heard her much lighter footfalls behind him, but she didn’t say a word.

Jacob snatched the cowboy hat off of her head and placed on the teenage boy’s head again. Probably a bit more forcefully than strictly necessary but it couldn’t have hurt him. The teenager looked dazed for a moment and then he seemed to put together what had happened. Nerves flashed across his face, his grin fell, and he cleared his throat.

“Uh, h—hi, Mr. Stone, sir,” the boy said with a gulp.

“Dad!” Summer said with a gasp and a glare.

“I think you should find your folks, son,” Jacob said with a quirked brow.

He heard Cassandra huff behind him and _thought_ he heard tell-tale impatient toe tapping too. He was probably going to be in trouble in a few minutes.

“I—I was just—um, I was gonna ask your daughter to dance, sir, If that’s okay?” the boy asked politely. Too politely. Suspiciously so.

“No,” Jacob said simply as he cross his arms over his chest.

“Oh my god, dad!” Summer yelled with a huff of her own that sounded much too close to Cassandra’s.  “We’re _at_ a dance. What else am I going to do?” She turned a pleading look to Cassandra. “Mom, _please_.”

“Stone,” Cassandra said sternly as she leaned toward his ear. “Calm down. It’s _one_ dance.” She forcefully looped her arm through his again and then placed a soothing hand on his shoulder. And just like that he realized he was being extremely unreasonable. He was panicking.

“Fine,” he said curtly. “Go. Dance.”

“Thank you, _mom_ ,” Summer said with a roll of her eyes as she took the young Cowboy’s arm and pulled him toward the dance floor. The boy looked hesitant and startled but he followed her easily enough.

“I’m sorry. That was _so embarrassing_ ,” he heard Summer tell the boy as they passed him.

He sighed and then winced before he covered his face with his hands and turned to face the wall. For her part, Cassandra chuckled and then slipped her arms around him from behind. “It’s okay,” she told him. “It was bound to happen sometime.”

“I’m _embarrassing?_ ” He asked as he turned in her arms and shook his head. “When did that happen?”

Cassandra smiled sympathetically at him and reached up to straighten his bolo tie. “About the time themed Christmas outfits became ‘super lame’,” she told him with a small grin. “Welcome to the uncool parent club. I’ve been here for a year already.”

“What happened to the little girl that conned us out of cookies? Or talked Flynn into taking her to visit Nessie? Where’d _that_ girl go?” Stone asked.

“She’s still there,” Cassandra said softly. “She’ll always be there. You know that.”

“There’s gonna be more boys now, isn’t there?” He asked hesitantly.

“Probably,” Cassandra said with a chuckle. “But she’s smart. Too smart. And she’s got us and everyone at The Library. If she’s learned anything it’s how to be a good judge of character.”

“So, you’re saying I have to trust that she’ll pick the _right_ boys?” Jacob asked her in disbelief.

Cassandra nodded. “Or at least that she’ll know what to do if she happens to pick a wrong one.”

“Yeah?” He asked with a sigh. “And what happens if she decides to hide everything she is and everything she wants to be just to fit in? What do we do then?”

Cassandra sighed and gave him a thoughtful look. “We’ve always taught her to be proud of who she is and what she’s passionate about,” she reminded him. “I have faith that she’ll remember that when it really counts.”

Summer avoided him for the rest of the night. She found her peers and made sure to stay in sight of her parents but never directly acknowledged them. It hurt Jacob more than it should have. He knew the teenage years would be difficult. He’d been warned there would be a phase where she would distance herself from them. But they’d avoided it for fourteen years and he’d hoped against hope that they might avoid it all together. 

It took Oklahoma to prove him wrong.

* * *

 

The ride back to his sister’s place was silent. Summer made it clear she was still unhappy with her father. Her face was tense and her lips were pursed. She avoided even looking at the rear view mirror and only occasionally spoke to Cassandra. Cassandra kept giving her daughter stern glances. She knew Jacob had embarrassed her but really this was too much. Not only that but what she’d seen of Summer tonight had worried her. She had not acted like the Summer she saw at home. The Summer who had friends that were just a quirky and intelligent as she was. This was a Summer who relished the attention of being “the new girl.” She had the curiosity of the whole town. She was exotic in this place that never changed.  Watching her daughter get caught up in that had worried her, but she knew it worried Jacob more. Only a few minutes into the drive she’d reached over and taken his hand.

She and Summer were going to have to have a little talk. Summer was growing up and they’d avoided it as long as they could. It was time to face it head on.

“How was the dance?” Jake’s sister asked as they all came through the door.

Patricia had been unable to attend after her youngest had come down with a severe cold, which had been disappointing for her because she’d been looking forward to it.

“It was fine,” Summer said with a huff before she stomped up the stairs to the guest bedroom she’d claimed as her own.

Jacob gave his sister a forced obviously fake smile and spoke through gritted teeth. “It was great, Patty. Can’t you tell?”

She winced at Cassandra and Jacob. “So, the perfect princess is finally acting her age, huh? Sorry, little brother, I do not envy you.”

“Thanks,” he said dryly with a roll of his eyes.

“It’s a phase,” Patricia told him as she patted her little brother’s cheek. “It’ll pass. Right, Cass?”

Cassandra smiled warmly at her husband and her sister-in-law and nodded. “Right.”

“I’ve got to check on Luke again,” Patricia said before she squeezed Jacob’s shoulder and then grabbed the cold medicine off the counter. She went upstairs and left them alone in the living room.

“You saw her tonight,” Jacob stated as he gave Cassandra a worried look. “That girl was not Summer.”

Cassandra tried her best not to react. She didn’t want to confirm Jacob’s worry. At least not before she talked to Summer herself. Instead she approached him and placed a quick kiss on his cheek. “I think I’m going to go talk to her. I’ll make sure she’s okay.”

She squeezed his hand briefly as she left him and headed up the stairs to Summer’s guest room. She lightly knocked on the door and was surprised to hear an almost pleasant reply.

“Come in, mother.”

Cassandra chuckled. Of course Summer knew she’d come to see her.

“So,” Cassandra said as she stepped inside and shut the door behind her. “Did you have fun tonight?”

She shrugged in response. “I guess.”

“You guess?” Cassandra asked. “You looked like you were having fun.”

“Well, I was but…I don’t know it felt like work,” Summer admitted with a sigh. “I thought it might be nice to have a blank slate, you know? No one here knows me. I can be anyone. It was exciting at first.”

“At first?” Cassandra asked as she sat down on the bed across from Summer. “It didn’t stay that way?”

She shook her head at her mother. “No, I had to keep my story straight and that’s harder than you’d think! It was like…Halloween. Wearing the costume is fun for an hour or two but after that you just want to put on your normal clothes and be comfortable.”

Interesting analogy, Cassandra thought. Similar to another comparison she’d heard years ago. “Did you learn anything from it?”

“Fitting in is hard, mom,” Summer said with a sigh. “Who I want to be is too weird back home. I’ve gotten good at moderating it. I can manage to tone down who I am to be a little closer to ‘normal’ while not totally losing myself. I’ve figured that out, but I hate doing it. I thought maybe it would be easier to just be someone else all together and tonight was my experiment.”

“And what was the result?”

Summer had always been a blend of Cassandra and Jacob. She had an appreciation for science and math but she didn’t approach it the way Cassandra did. She had a visual style that reflected her father and the love of art he’d tried to inspire in her. But there were times when Cassandra’s science and math reached Summer easier. This appeared to be one of those times.

“It was not easier. Although, I’d say the amount of effort remained constant. Half pretending or completely pretending doesn’t matter. It’s keeping track of the story that takes up a major percentage of the effort.”

“So, it was a wash out?” Cassandra asked knowingly.

Summer nodded wordlessly.

“You know, believe it or not, your father and I both struggled with this when we were your age,” Cassandra told her honestly.

“You have to say that, you’re my mom. Like there was ever a time where you weren’t perfect,” Summer said with a sigh.

“Honey,” Cassandra said with a sad smile. “The things you don’t know about my teenage years could fill a very long book. Trust me, if anyone knows what it’s like to be too different it’s me.”

“Your synesthesia?” Summer asked knowingly. They’d discovered she had her own form of synesthesia not long after Summer’s sixth birthday. She’d never known other people didn’t see indigo when your parents sounded disappointed in you or hear classical music when looking at the color red. Cassandra would never forget the moment she put it all together. Summer had asked her, very innocently, what color she saw when they sang Christmas Carols.

Cassandra had cried every night for a week after that discovery. She’d grown to appreciate her synesthesia for what it was, but it had taken her a very long time to feel that way or to even realize how truly useful it was. She’d always hoped her children would be spared from being as unusual as Cassandra had always been. With one simple question from six year old daughter that hope had crumbled in front of her.

She smiled softly and nodded before she reached out and playfully tugged on one of Summer’s pigtails. “Mine wasn’t as easily hidden as yours. It tended to be distracting.” They’d yet to tell Summer about the tumor that had once threatened Cassandra’s life. That was a discussion for another time. “I _wish_ mine was limited to translating sounds to colors and colors to sounds.”

“Blue,” Summer said softly. “Your words are blue. You’re sad.”

“A little,” Cassandra admitted with an affectionate smile. “But it got better. Eventually it got better. Unlike you, though, I did not have understanding parents. They were very strict with me. Studies were the most important thing. Everything else was banned.”

“Everything?” Summer asked with raised eyebrows.

“They were some exceptions, but those exceptions were considered educational or beneficial to college applications,” Cassandra told her. “So, on top of being the girl who saw numbers as colors, did math with her hands in the air, and heard music in the middle of science class, I was also the girl who wasn’t allowed to have friends. I was the perfect over achiever who made my peers look bad, or at least they thought I did. It made the little time I was in school very difficult. So, to me, it’s important that _you_ get to be as normal of a teenager as possible. That you have a well rounded high school experience. I don’t want you to define yourself as one thing or to think that if you don’t do it well that no one will value you. That’s my focus and my concern.”

Summer nodded. “I can understand that.”

“Good,” Cassandra said as she reached over and patted Summer’s knee. “My past effects how I worry and the things I hope for you. And it’s the same with your father.”

Summer groaned and covered her face with her hands. “That was so embarrassing, mom! I can’t believe he did that!”

“He worries about you just like I do,” Cassandra said as she reached out and pulled Summer’s hands away from her face. “You know, your father is a brilliant man. You’ve never known him to be anyone else than—“

“Jacob Stone, art historian with an IQ of 190,” Summer said with a small smirk and roll of her eyes. “Yes, I know.”

Cassandra chuckled at her. “Would you believe that there was a time where no one knew that about him? Would you believe me if I told you that he kept it a secret for all of his younger years?”

“How is that possible?” Summer asked. “He gets all ranty and giggly every time we visit a remotely interesting looking building and then the spontaneous lectures on artists—“

“He does that _now_ ,” Cassandra said as she interrupted her with an affectionate smile. “He hasn’t denied who he really is in _years_ , but when I met him he was very much living a lie. He was pretending to be someone completely different with his family and friends. This town made him so insecure about himself that he hid his passion and his knowledge for the sake of fitting in,” Cassandra told her daughter with a pointed look. “He did all of that so his peers, and adults that he respected, would accept him. He didn’t like being different either. He hid himself from the entire world for far too long. So, you see, that’s his worry. That’s what he’s concerned with and what he would save you from if he absolutely could. To him, High School and _boys_ , mean that you’re facing pressure that he can’t protect you from. It means that you’ll have to start discerning what the right thing is on your own. It means we have to let you fight a few of your own battles and it means you’re reaching the age where it becomes increasingly more difficult to be the person you truly are. That scares him. He loves you and he cares about you. But he worries he’ll lose you to all of that.”

“I didn’t know that,” Summer said quietly.

Cassandra nodded and then kissed her daughter’s forehead. “I know you didn’t. I’m only telling you because I want you to know why he reacted the way that he did. Cut him a little slack, okay? He has his reasons. Besides, this parenting business is tough stuff,” Cassandra told her with a wink.

Summer chuckled and nodded. “I don’t make it easy, do I?”

Cassandra shrugged as she stood and then began to undo Summer’s pigtails “You make it easier than most, I’m told. Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re growing up and that’s not an easy thing to do. But, you should know by now, no matter how tough things get or who you choose to be that your father and I will love you no matter what. Okay?”

Summer smiled softly at her and then stood from the bed and hugged her mother tightly. “Okay.”

“Well,” Cassandra said as she pulled away. “I’m going to go get ready for bed, _but_ I believe your father is still downstairs. If you, for some unrelated reason, wanted to talk to him.”

She placed one last kiss on her daughter’s forehead and then left the room. Summer bit her bottom lip thoughtfully before changing into her pajamas and heading downstairs. She didn’t really know what to say, but she knew she needed to talk to him.

* * *

 

Jacob had a glass of milk and a few chocolate chip cookies sitting in front of him as he leaned against the counter and looked out the darkened window. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t see anything. He was too caught up in his worry to really look to begin with. He heard shuffling behind him and turned to see Summer slowly entering the kitchen with a sheepish and apologetic look on her face. She’d changed into her pajamas and put on a pair of bright pink bunny slippers. The little girl she’d once been suddenly popped into his head and he couldn’t stop the soft nostalgic smile.

“Hi, daddy,” she said quietly.

“So, you’re talking to me now?” He asked with a quirked brow.

She looked down at her feet and then nodded. “I’m sorry.”

He held his arms out from his sides and motioned for her to come to him. She smiled brightly and immediately ran to his arms. He wrapped her in a tight hug and kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry too,” he told her. “I may have overreacted.”

She laughed lightly and then gave him a knowing look. “May have?”

He chuckled. “Okay, I _did_ overreact. I get it.”

“I’m sorry I gave you so much grief for it. I know you worry,” she admitted.

“I do,” he told her. “I want you to be happy and safe. I want you to have people in your life who care about you and what you want. I want you to feel comfortable in your own skin. I want so many things for you that I didn’t get to have. I worry that you’ll repeat my mistakes and that is the last thing I want. My mistakes caused me more heartache than necessary. I could have saved myself the trouble if I’d just let myself be who I wanted to be when I was your age.”

“But you didn’t do that?” Summer asked him. She knew the answer but she wanted to hear it from him.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “No, I didn’t.”

“Being yourself is really difficult,” she told him honestly.

“It’s the most difficult thing you’ll ever do,” he agreed. “No one knows that better than me.”

“Well, I’ll try my best to be the person I want to be,” Summer promised with a nod as she continued to hug him.

“That’s all I ask, darlin’,” Jacob told her as he squeezed her a little tighter before letting go so that he only had one arm around her.

She spotted the cookies on the counter and the glass of milk and turned her baby blues up to meet her father’s eyes. “Can I have a cookie?”

He laughed and nodded before dropping a kiss to her temple. “Sure, just don’t tell mom, okay?”

“Okay,” she said with a grin as pulled a cookie out of the jar and dipped it in his glass of milk.

He smiled affectionately at her and slid the jar closer to her to let her grab another one. It was nice to know that no matter her age some things would never change.


End file.
